Witchy Woman
by Chelsea Oz
Summary: A very macabre one shot. A young Jack Finch picks up a book on voodoo by mistake. It leads up to the realization that Jack and Caroline's nanny has psychic powers when they discover notes about Atticus' life that end up coming true.


Finch's Landing had more black people on the land than white people. Even as a young boy, I knew this to be a natural fact. I never payed them any mind because they were here as a service to us. Our house maintanence alone was 24/7 and I would never know where my family would be if we didn't have them.

The only time when I was young and payed the negros any mind was when I just turned ten. Finch's Landing was so far off the radar that if we needed books for school or for entertainment, we would have to import books. I remember waiting paitiently for the boat to dock so I could help myself to a new book. Several crates later, I finally found the long awaited reading material. The very first book I picked up was titled "Haiti Voodoo Magick." I'm pretty sure there was more to the title I would have remembered if I hadn't noticed all the color draining from my face first. That rattled me to the core.

"You all right, son?" The colored captain asked.

"Yes, sir," I said as I tried to stand upright again.

"Child, you look like you done seen a ghost!"

"Oh, well, I just don't feel very well."

"Well, you best be running along then! That salt air wind'll be picking up and that'll make you sicker!"

"Yes, sir," I said as I ran along, just like he had told me to.

I don't think I ever ran so fast in my life. The colored captain began laughing as he saw me running. There was something about that man's laugh that made me shutter all the way home. It was almost like he had put the book there on purpose so he could cast a spell on me or something. His laughter stopped ringing in my ears and my body slowed down as I realized I was at my house. I was walking up the steps when I heard my nanny cackling.

"You poor child," she said as she stabbed her needle into her latest needlepoint project. "You's so bored you couldn't wait to come home and read."

"What?"

"I see that book in your hand, boy."

I looked down and the rush of panic came back to me. I had forgotten the book was in my hand. My face must have not been telling any secrets because my nanny stopped her cackling and put her needlepoint down. "Caroline," the stitchwork said. She must have been making it for my sister. I could only focus on breathing as she came over to me and gave that book a glance over. Her face said everything I'm sure mine had said when she found out what it was.

"Oh, Lawdy Lord!" She shrieked as she threw it on the porch.

"Matilda," I called her by name. "Do you know about that stuff?"

"Shush your mouth, boy!" She whispered as she pulled me closer to her. "If your folks ever found out, who knows what they'd do!"

"Matilda, what do you know?"

"I know stuff you ain't never gonna! Now you give me that book and I'mma hide it so you can't ever find it! Go in the house."

"Matilda..."

"I says go!"

I ran into the house while I heard Matilda run down the porch steps. It was quiet in the house which was a little unusual. I just prayed to God nobody heard Matilda screech. I made it up to the top steps when I saw Caroline outside her bedroom with binoculars in her hands and a smile on her face.

"I saw everything," she said with a sinister tone of voice.

"Bet you heard everything, too, brat," I sneered as I snatched the binoculars from her hands.

"I just know it's a book. What kind of book?"

Being that Caroline was a bigger shithead than I was, I'll never know why I told her. Well, I didn't exactly tell her- I spelled out voodoo on her hand and she gasped so loud that I knocked her head back into the wall trying to cover her mouth. We both gasped when Mama appeared out of nowhere. She had that warning look about her face and who knows what she'd say if she gave you that look.

"Wash up for dinner, children," she said.

I had never been so relieved about dinner. I wasn't necessarily hungry for it but it would be a nice distraction from what just happened. Daddy talked about his business and Mama talked about current events and that was even to intrigue me into forgetting about the book. It was going to be a hot night so I took a cold bath and when I could no longer stand it, I went to bed. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

"Jack, Jack," I felt someone nudge me. It was Caroline's voice.

"Caroline..."

"Wake up, Jack!"

"What are you up to? I was sound to sleep."

"I snuck into Matilda's room and..."

"Caroline, if you stole that book, so help me God!"

"I didn't get the book and will you be quiet? You're going to wake Mama and Daddy!"

"Then what did you wake me up for?"

"Look at these papers."

"Papers?"

"They're about Atticus."

"Atticus?"

Atticus was my older brother and the eldest of us children. He no longer lived with us at the Landing; he moved to Montgomery to study law. And what in the world would she have to write about Atticus for? He was a good man who never bothered anybody. I quickly snatched the papers from Caroline and sure enough his name was on top of the page. Her words weren't written like a story but more like notes and they were about things that have not even happened yet.

"Well, he is going to be a lawyer," I said to Caroline as I pointed to the lonely word underneath his name.

"Look at the middle where it says wife and 15."

"You think his wife is going to be 15?"

"No, that'd be weird. Look at all the not nice things listed underneath wife."

There were three words: Depression, sorrow, death.

"His wife is going to die?"

"So won't his son."

"Son?"

"Look here."

There were three words: Pride, war, death.

"There's a daughter listed here, too."

There was only one word: unknown. That gave me chills.

"Matilda must know things, Caroline."

"I'm sneaking these back in. I'll never go back in her room again. If there are notes for us, I hope I never come across them!"

"Me either. Try to pretend you never saw them."

"I'll never be able to but I'll try anyway."

I would never have a more sleepless night again once Caroline shut the door. Poor Atticus if all those things come true.


End file.
